Robert Coram described “Destruction and Creation” as “having a specific gravity approaching that of uranium.” While apt (you can download a copy from our Articles page and draw your own conclusion), Boyd distilled its essence down to a couple of cogent sentences:

According to Gödel we cannot—in general—determine the consistency, hence the character or nature, of an abstract system within itself. According to Heisenberg and the Second Law of Thermodynamics any attempt to do so in the real world will expose uncertainty and generate disorder.

Examples are not hard to find. In a recent column for Inc.com, “Cracker Barrel wanted to cut costs. Instead, it damaged its own brand–again,” author Minda Zetlin noted that the company has gone through a series of mis-steps that define the cliche “mind boggling.” First, they decided to modernize the logo by eliminating anything associated with their homey, country theme — the old man and even the cracker barrel itself — then they got rid of the antiques on the wooden walls (and repainted them an androgynous white).

There was an immediate customer backlash, driving the share price down almost 50%. As Ms. Kalin notes, they did learn from the experience. Sort of. Going into frantic reverse, the company squelched both initiatives. But then, they turned around and did something almost as, shall we say, ineffective. In a panic to cut costs, they issued a directive requiring employees, if at all possible, to only eat at Cracker Barrels while traveling. Once leaked, comments on the directive were brutal. Many were along the line of “even their own employees have to be forced to eat there.”

Ms. Kalin, however, reaches a deeper, more strategic, even Boydian, conclusion: ” … it can prevent employees from checking out other restaurants, looking to see what the competition is doing or discovering new and innovative approaches.” She surmises that the root cause of their problems was that Cracker Barrel execs “were so used to looking at the world from inside their company that they forgot how things looked from the outside.” In other words, success at playing the game inside the company is what got you rewarded and promoted, and over time, this internal focus warped their orientation. As Boyd predicted:

Put another way, we can expect unexplained and disturbing ambiguities, uncertainties, anomalies, or apparent inconsistencies to emerge more and more often. 

I noted this effect, and suggested several antidotes in Certain to Win, chapter VI. Ms. Kalin insists, rightly, that senior execs should interact with customers and “customer-facing employees as part of their regular workweek.” But also, these same senior leaders, not just employees who happen to be on the road, should experience the competition regularly and first hand. Finally, organizations need mechanisms to take all this tactical, front-line knowledge and ensure that it influences their (common implicit*) orientation. Thus are effective actions taken.

In this regard, a shout out to Ford CEO Jim Farley, who imported a Xiaomi SU7, drove it for a while, and described it as “fantastic!” praising its its superior technology, quality, and, specifically, its seamless smartphone integration. There may be hope for Ford.

Here’s a video review of the car, so you can see what he’s talking about.

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*As explained on Organic Design 23 (available from our Articles page).

As an aside, last Sunday evening, before seeing this article but aware of CB’s problems, I was returning with a companion from the Rowdy Gaines Invitational Swim Meet in Orlando. Starting with temperatures that broke a 90-year record cold, it had been a long day. So when we stopped for the night in Palm Coast, we wanted some place for dinner that was warm, quick, and close. As luck would have it, there was a Cracker Barrel around the corner. Although it had been a couple of years since my last visit to their chain, it was familiar as soon as we walked in: the roaring fireplace, folksy artifacts, and natural wood walls. Familiar menu, quick service, and a hoot of a waitress. Somehow, it felt like going home. Now why in the world would you want to take that brand and turn it into “just another restaurant”?